The friendly against Manchester United showed Leeds United fans what to expect from the youngsters this season.
We knew the pre-season friendly against Manchester United this week wasn’t going to throw up any shocking results, and with the new boss in place, Daniel Farke did his best to play a team with a revolving door and it was quite literally the cliche game of two halves.
Whilst the second half favoured the Old Guard with the likes of Bamford, Ayling and Struick, the first half was a tantalising look at the hungry youngsters eager to make a name for themselves and fight for their first team place. Some are familiar to us already, the likes of Joe Geldhart, Dan James and Jamie Shackleton, but a few boys in town were ready to fight to put on a Leeds United shirt, and at times even looked they were enjoying this game!
Ian Poveda returning from his Blackpool spell on loan from Leeds, showed some exciting promise, and let’s not forget his youth career spanning clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal and Barcelona, and but for Mejbri defending an excellent cross by Sinisterra, he would have tapped that in the back of the net and put Leeds 1-0 ahead. He continued to press and delivered a beautiful low cross for Greenwood, who just couldn’t quite reach and convert. A hungry young man willing to come back to Leeds from his loan spells at Blackburn and Blackpool, and show what he has learned whilst been away.
Archie Gray, 17 year old with a history of Leeds United players in the family, he knows better than anyone what it means to the fans and the city to put on a Leeds United shirt. He had probably the best chance of the game with a cracking shot that hit the side netting, an impressive young player eager to win his place in the first team after earning his stripes in the youth team and Academy, another Gary legend in the making.
Darko Gyabi, who came to us as part of a transfer combination Kalvin Phillips deal from Manchester City, looks threatening and strong in both attacking and defensive midfield. Not afraid to get stuck in, he showed no fear against the likes of Manchester’s new signing Mason Mount, and was able to get behind the ball in his own penalty area, as well as showing some nice passing skills through to Rutter on the counter attack. He has scored for the U20s England squad against Uruguay and is powerful on the ball, able to hold off players and more importantly in this day and age, stay on his feet. He featured on BBC Sports Wonderkids at the age of just 16, this guy is definitely one to keep a close eye on in the Championship.
Some other youngsters worth a mention include 22 year old Klausson who held his own making a good save in the first half and kept a clean sheet on his watch, Cody Drameh worked hard blocking Diallo’s shot at 20 minutes, and Georginio Rutter showed some signs of creativity with some good runs forward.
The older and more experienced team members of last season who may be over confident on their entitled first team places should be twitching in their boots because these kids are hungry. They want to be here, they want that first team place, they want to be part of history and earn their places in the Premiership on merit and talent .Farke is certainly the coach to get the best out of them, and maybe the old boys should pull their socks up and look around at these boys and remind themselves what it is to play for Leeds United.
